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SPOTLIGHT

Some Of Our FavoriteTools And Toys

Surely you know somebody who loves outdoor cooking who deserves a gift for the holidays, birthday, anniversary, or just for being wonderful. There he is, right in the mirror! Here are our selections of best ideas, all Platinum or Gold Medalists, listed by price.

If you have a Weber Kettle, you need the Slow 'N' Sear

Bring The Heat With Broil King Signet's Dual Tube Burners

The Broil King Signet 320 is a modestly priced, 3-burner gas grill that packs a lot of value and power under the hood. Broil King's proprietary, dual-tube burners get hot fast and are able to achieve high, searing temps that rival most comparatively priced gas grills. The quality cast aluminum housing carries a Limited Lifetime Warranty.

The Good-One Is A Superb Grill And A Superb Smoker All In One

The Good-One Open Range is a charcoal grill with an offset smoke chamber attached. It is dramatically different from a traditional offset smoker. The grill sits low in front and doubles as a firebox for the smoke chamber which is spliced on above and behind so it can work like a horizontal offset smoker only better. By placing the heat source behind and under the smokebox instead of off to the side, Open Range produces even temperature from left to right, something almost impossible to achieve with a standard barrel shaped offset.

Griddle And Deep Fryer All In One

The flat top does the burgers and the fryer does the fries. Use the griddle for bacon, eggs, and home fries. Or pancakes, fajitas, grilled cheese, you name it. Why stink up the house deep frying and spatter all over? Do your fried chicken and calamari outside. Blackstone's Rangetop Combo With Deep Fryer does it all. Plus it has a built in cutting board, garbage bag holder, and paper towel holder. An additional work table on the left side provides plenty of counter space.

The Pit Barrel Cooker May Be Too Easy

The PBC has a rabid cult following for good reason. It is absolutely positively without a doubt the best bargain on a smoker in the world. Period. This baby will cook circles around the cheap offset sideways barrel smokers in the hardware stores because temperature control is so much easier. Best of all, it is only $299 delivered to your door!

The Swiss Army Knife Of Thermometers

The smart folks at ThermoWorks have finally done it: The Swiss Army Knife of thermometers, two in one. Start with the industry standard food thermometer, the Thermapen MK4, (Platinum Medal winner) truly instant (2 to 3 seconds) precise (+ or – 0.7°F). Then they built in an infrared thermometer ideal for measuring the temps of pizza stones, griddles, and frying pans (also great for finding leaks around doors and windows in your house).

The Cool Kettle With The Hinged Hood We Always Wanted

Their NK22CK-C Charcoal Kettle Grill puts a few spins on the familiar kettle design. In fact, the hinged lid with a handle on the front, spins in a rotary motion 180 degrees. It's hard to beat a Weber kettle, but Napoleon holds its own and adds some unique features to make the NK22CK-C a viable alternative.

G&F Suede Welder's Gloves

Heat Resistant Gloves With Extra Long Sleeves Hold The Hot Stuff

If you're using oven mitts at the grill, it's time to trade up. Say hello to these suede welder's gloves. They're heat resistant enough to handle hot grill grates, and flexible enough to handle tongs. The extra long sleeves even let you reach deep into the firebox to move hot logs without getting burned. Our Fave.

GrillGrates Take Gas Grills To The Infrared Zone

GrillGrates(TM) amplify heat, prevent flareups, make flipping foods easier, keep small foods from committing suicide, kill hotspots, are easier to clean, flip over to make a fine griddle, and can be easily removed and moved from one grill to another. You can even throw wood chips, pellets, or sawdust between the rails and deliver a quick burst of smoke to whatever is above. Every gas grill needs them.

Our Favorite Backyard Smoker

The amazing Karubecue is the most innovative smoker in the world. The quality of meat from this machine is astonishing. At its crux is a patented firebox that burns logs above the cooking chamber and sucks heat and extremely clean blue smoke into the thermostat controlled oven. It is our favorite smoker, period.

Masterbuilt MPS 340/G ThermoTemp XL Propane Smoker

The First Propane Smoker With A Thermostat Makes This Baby Foolproof

Set ThermoTemp's dial from 175° to 350°F and the thermostat inside will adjust the burner just like an indoor kitchen oven. All you need to do is add wood to the tray above the burner to start smokin'.

Professional Steakhouse Knife Set

Our founder, Meathead, wanted the same steak knives used by steakhouses such as Peter Luger, Smith & Wollensky, Morton's, Kobe Club, Palm, and many others. So he located the manufacturer and had them stamp our name on some. They boast pointed, temper-ground, serrated, high-carbon stainless-steel, half-tang blades with excellent cutting edge ability. The beefy hardwood handle provides a comfortable grip secured by three hefty rivets. He has machine washed his more than 100 times. They have never rusted and they stay shiny without polishing. Please note that we do not make, sell, or distribute these knives, they just engrave them with our name.

Is This Superb Charcoal Grill A Kamado Killer?

The PK-360, with 360 square inches of cooking space, this rust free, cast aluminum charcoal grill is durable and easy to use. Four-way venting means it's easy to set up for two zone cooking with more control than single vent Kamado grills. It is much easier to set up for 2-zone cooking than any round kamado. Beautifully designed and completely portable. Meathead says it is his preferrred grill.

Finally, A Great Portable Pellet Smoker

Green Mountain's portable Davy Crockett Pellet Smoker is one mean tailgating and picnic machine. But it's also gaining popularity with people who want to add a small, set it and forget it pellet smoker to their backyard arsenal. And with their WiFi capabilities you can control and monitor Davy Crocket from your smart phone or laptop.

Saber SS 500 3-Burner Gas Grill Review

The Saber SS 500 is the mid-size model in Saber's premium line of gas grills. One could compare it to Weber's Summit grills in quality and price. This 3-burner cooker has some unique features based on patented infrared designs developed by Saber's parent company, Char-Broil. But Sabers are much more sophisticated and much higher quality than anything that bears the Char-Broil name. Saber sent us this model to check out. We extensively tested it and were impressed. It gets real hot, real fast, and can hit 700°F in about ten minutes. Heat is uniform across the entire cooking surface. It does not flare up and produces moist, juicy foods.

The firebox is designed to cradle each burner with individual compartments for complete isolation and optimal zone cooking. Below is an illustration of one burner system. On a two burner unit there are two of these units, etc. There are no heat tents or flavor bars covering the burners. The 304 stainless grate system has a unique, patented design meant to promote uniform radiant heat and move convection heat away from the cooking grate. Convection heat is hot circulating air that can rob food of moisture. The grate/emitter system has ridges that conform to the bottom of the grates. Rather than cast metal or steel rods, the grates are half-tubes of stainless steel that fit onto these ridges and create a series of hot air tunnels. A row of slots at the peak of each ridge delivers heat from the burners below into this tunnel. The heat then naturally escapes by moving out of the tunnel and dissipates through vents at the cooking area perimeter.

Despite the high heat, the SS 500 is rated at only 24,000 BTU (remember, BTU is a measure of fuel consumption and is not directly related to heat any more than fuel consumption of a car has to do with speed). Each burner is rated at 8,000 BTU. Saber's fuel efficiency was rewarded by Hearth and Home Magazine with their VESTA 2012 Green Award for creating a grill that reduces gas consumption by 30 to 50%.

This all stainless model with seamless welds has an aesthetic appeal similar to some luxury brands, although it is much less expensive. Housings are built with solid construction that rivals many more expensive, premium grills. All stainless steel is top quality 304 grade. Cart frames are fully welded 1" steel. All carts models have heavy duty 3" locking casters and are built for Propane. This same grill head is available without a cart for built-in installations and set up for natural gas. EZLP and EZNG conversion kits are available should your needs change.

Push and turn, battery powered electric ignition on each knob is smooth and consistent. Two AC powered halogen hood lamps work beautifully to illuminate the entire cooking chamber after dark. It has an excellent dual control side burner with a two sided grate that accommodates bowl-shaped woks or flat- bottom pots. It has a large circular burner with a smaller burner at the center. The dual controls are not marked to identify the corresponding burner, but one gets accustomed to this quickly. It carries a warranty that exceeds many competitors.

Although it can't go from 225°F to 900°F in the blink of an eye like some more expensive grills, it cranks pretty fast, making it great for the reverse sear method on steaks and burgers. Pat O'Donnell, president of Hearth and Home Patio & BBQ, is a Chicago area Saber dealer. O'Donnell has sold the venerable TEC infrared grills for many years and feels the performance of Saber for searing steaks, chops and fish is nearly as good as TEC. "There is no appreciable difference", he states.

There are a few minor issues. We've never found accurate bi-metal dial thermometers from any manufacturer and Saber is no exception. The SS 500 has three on the control panel: one above each burner. We had a couple conversations with Saber about their dial thermometers. They ultimately agreed with us that dial thermometers only provide a vague reference point. They are not accurate and "heat indicators" is a more appropriate name.

Be that as it may, Saber models with individual burner indicators provide additional reference points that may have some use when zone cooking. They do illustrate how quickly these systems heat up. After fifteen minutes with all burners cranked to the max and the Saber dials pegged past 800°F, our Thermoworks thermocouple read 710°F. We had the probe in the center of the cook surface hovering at grate level between two grates. At that point, regardless of the actual temperature, it was plenty hot for searing. At the end of the day, nothing takes the place of an accurate digital thermometer.

We were able to get a nice whiff of BBQ smoke on steaks, fish and chicken by simply dropping wood chips into the grates. But when we set up for 2-zone cooking with a water pan and used wood chips in foil pouches for ribs, shoulder, brisket and whole chickens, it was good, but not deep-smoked: typical of a gasser.

The Saber cook chamber is almost completely sealed off from the gas flame. In fact, you may have trouble seeing the flame when you first fire one up, (one quickly learns to peek through a small opening above each main burner). When grilling small items like shrimp and wings, there are no worries about losing food between the grates. This closed system is instrumental for generating radiant heat and preventing flare ups, but even though I did a burn off after each session, grease accumulation eventually became noticeable inside the hood and around the edges of the grates.

Speaking of grease, the grease tray is our least favorite feature of Saber. When left in the rain uncovered, the tray fills with water. Although, not much grease gets past the grates, some does. Handling a one inch deep two foot wide tray of greasy water can be frustrating. Avoid this nuisance by using a cover, especially when you expect rain.

Assembly was easy. You basically put the cart together then drop the head into it. This is done with twenty-six identical hex bolts, six identical screws, and some washers. The only problem occurred when the grill was almost fully assembled. Directions indicated two thin wires from the halogen hood lights should be hanging from the bottom of the grill inside the cart. They were nowhere to be found. After several minutes of confusion and frustration, we pulled out the grease tray and discovered the wires taped to the bottom of the firebox.

Rob Schwing, who was General Manager of Saber at the time of the 2011 brand roll out, told us how the powers that be at Char-Broil directed him to create a new line of premium grills from the ground up. There's an old saying: "It can be great, it can be inexpensive, or it can be done quickly…. pick two." Char-Broil chose great and inexpensive. Saber had to compete with other premium grills, but sell for less. Schwing was given a blank piece of paper, a pile of money and told to do what it takes to make it happen. He had the buying power and infrastructure of one of the worlds largest grill manufacturers at his disposal.

Schwing's team immediately ordered hundreds of different grills to be delivered to the new Saber warehouse in Char-Broil's Columbus, GA, facility. They wanted to not only analyze the best performance characteristics of each grill, but also how different designs impacted on cost, packaging, shipping and assembly. One interesting idea gleaned from this process was to pre-assemble the grill head, then wrap it with the partially assembled cart. If the box was damaged in shipping, the less expensive cart would protect the valuable grill head. All cost savings were passed along to the consumer, or used for upgrades like the 304 stainless. "From a business perspective, the time was right to introduce a line of premium grills that didn't carry a super-premium price tag", said Schwing. "In recent years we've watched high-end manufacturers degrade their materials to bring margins up. Product quality has gone down but prices haven't."

Saber achieves further cost reduction by using Char-Broil's aggregate buying power although they do not use Char-Broil's Chinese manufacturing facilities. They work with a different Chinese manufacturer that focuses on high-end metal fabrication. Schwing bristles at the perception that everything made in China is cheap. "When I go to an airport, everyone's walking around with iPads and iPhones. The Chinese make some of the best products in the world." We agree. It's not that the Chinese are only capable of making cheap stuff, it's that western companies are placing orders for an awful lot of cheap stuff with Chinese manufacturers. Not so with Saber. During the course of our tests we invited many friends and family members by to join in. None had heard of Saber yet, but the response was always some variation on "Wow! That's a nice grill!" The quality is easy to see and easy to appreciate.

Saber is not available in any big box chains and is sold exclusively through specialty retail stores. For your nearest dealer check Saber's website.

48.00Heat Flux is the BTU per square inch and is a more useful measure of how much heat a grill delivers than BTU alone.

Review Method:

Cooked On It

We have hands-on experience testing this product. We have also gathered info from the manufacturer, owners and other reliable sources.

Saber Grills

In 2011 Saber Grills, LLC unveiled a line of six full-size gas grills and two drop-in models. These grills are based on infrared designs developed by Saber's parent company, Char-Broil. But they are much more sophisticated and much higher quality.

Saber is offered in two, three and four burner configurations. They get real hot, real fast and can hit 700F in about ten minutes. Heat is uniform across the entire cooking surface. It does not flare up and produces moist, juicy foods. Entry level models have cast aluminum end caps. The all stainless models with seamless welds have an aesthetic appeal similar to many luxury brands, although much less expensive. Despite the high heat, our three burner demo was rated at only 24,000 BTU. Saber's fuel efficiency was rewarded by Hearth and Home Magazine with their VESTA 2012 Green Award for creating a grill that reduces gas consumption by 30 to 50 percent.

They are currently available through independent hearth and patio stores and BBQ internet sites.

Awards

“The most respected and comprehensive reviewers of grills and smokers in the world”

- Larry Olmsted,Senior Contributor (Forbes)

Many merchants pay us a small referral fee when you click our links and purchase from them. On Amazon it works on everything from grills to diapers, they never tell us what you bought, and it has zero impact on the price you pay, but has a major impact on our ability to improve this site! And remember, we only recommend products we love. If you like AmazingRibs.com, please save this link and use it every time you go to Amazonhttps://tinyurl.com/amazingribs

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